Garland, Leader of the Shadow Consortium, sat on his throne and watched the torches in the dark stone chamber, which provided just enough illumination that he could see the Millennium Earl approaching down the narrow carpet cutting through the room. The Earl stopped in front of Garland and held up a teacup, saying, “Here ya are, sir, just like ya asked!”“Is that so?” Garland said, taking the cup. He examined it for a moment and then tossed its contents onto a small table, which melted away in seconds.“Well, I may’ve stretched the truth a little, kyeh heh heh…” the Earl laughed.“I’ve always admired your tenacity, Earl,” came a raspy voice.Virulence shuffled down the hall, and the Earl said, “Oh, you’re up! Didn’t expect to see ya so soon after that episode earlier.”“No need to worry about me, Earl,” Virulence wheezed. “Besides, it’s rare that Division Heads are called together like th—“A coughing fit interrupted Virulence, and a voice called, “Why don’t you just retire, you invalid? In your Division, finding a suitable replacement should be easy.”Virulence, still coughing, glared at Exdeath, who stood there and emanated an air of condescendence even though no one could see his face. Exdeath knelt before Garland, saying, “My apologies for not arriving sooner, my lord. I had to slip through some patrol forces to preserve the secrecy of my mission.”“Rghrgh…I’m sure you wish you had some operatives from ‘my Division’ to…ahaugh…wipe out those forces,” Virulence said.Exdeath turned his head, and Garland said, “Exdeath is my most trusted and effective operative, which is why he works separate from the Divisions while retaining his rank.”Virulence said nothing, and Exdeath laughed, “Mwa-ha-ha! Anyway, sir, I regret to inform you that the trail has gone cold. The objects you want me to find are more well-hidden than I anticipated.”“I believe I have an explanation for that,” broke in a robotic voice. “Subject: ‘Exdeath’ is incompetent. The best solution would be to replace him with someone more capable.”Exdeath turned and grolwed, “Contrivance…I see you were also able to attend. I thought you’d be tending to one of your experiments.”Contrivance came to a halt and said, “While I do wish to make some more adjustments, solely for SCIENCE, I believe it was reasonable to take a break. After all, each of my subjects has already developed intellect far surpassing your own.”“Hold your tongue, old man,” Exdeath said, his hand brushing against one of the two swords at his waist.“Exdeath,” Garland said. “Take care to remember the punishment for unsheathing that blade inside the base.”“…Indeed, my lord…” Exdeath said. “My apologies…”“That’s everyone who could show,” the Earl said. “Why don’t we get started?”“Quite,” Garland said. “The others will be informed at a later time. Listen well…the King Bohrok have awakened once more, and Les Qutre Fréres de Lame are gathering at the same time.”“I have my suspicions,” Virulence said. “Buu was babling something about—“Virulence began hacking violently, and Contrivance said, “I have long wished for a chance to study the Kings…the Brothers as well. Who knows what I could learn? The experiments that could be done in the name of SCIENCE?!”“Calm down,” Exdeath grumbled. “The Consortium would in no way benefit from such experiments. When I complete my task, Garland will be invincible, and our victory will be absolute.”“How ‘bout we all just shut up for a bit?” the Earl recommended.“The Gathering must be an omen signaling my success,” Garland said. “The Kings should distract them well enough…but we should leave nothig to chance. Here is what I want you to do…”

Very interesting, tell me if I've analyzed them wrong, Garland is your typical lead supervillain just like Kytan and Shadow Knight, Virulence seems kinda like Shadow Snake, Nuhvok and Corruption but with the flu, Millennium Earl is hard to read, Exdeath seems somewhat like Destroyer, Union and War Machine, Contrivance reminds me of Ebling Mis from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series book two, Foundation and Empire. That's all I could gather about them, I would make a comment about how excited I am but that seems unnecessary.

Yeah, Garland and Shadow Knight have a lot in common...I'll try to make Garland as unique as possible. Need to improve on that...Virulence isn't a scientist like those others, but he probably will seem a little like Nuhvok--he's in charge of the basic grunts, so he'll be the most directly frustrated by the main characters.Millennium Earl is meant to be hard to read :DExdeath won't go off the hinge like Destroyer or War Machine, but he is very Union-like: a personal servant to the leader with almost unrivaled power.Don't know anything about that series, but Conrivance is our main science villain this time around. He might make some very interesting things...

You have a tendency to make your supervillans polite, not that its a bad thing.Yeah, I just meant his personality would be similar.Great job then!Every great villain has a Union behind them.You should read them, they are the finest sci-fi books there are.